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The shrine of St. Sebaldus is supported by sculptures of snails. That is a nice work from the Renaissance.

St. Sebaldus is a patron saint of Nuremberg (in Bavaria, Germany). The bronze shrine of St. Sebaldus is in the middle of the St. Sebaldus Church in Nuremberg. It was made by German sculptor Peter Vischer the Elder (1455-1529) and his sons in 1508-1519.

There are 12 different snail sculptures holding the shrine. They all represent stylommatophoran land snails with right-handed shell. You can see four of them here:

I cloud not found much information about these snail sculptures so it remains a mystery, at least for me. But I think that they were made for aesthetic purposes only, because snail shells are beautiful and shells would seem incomplete without live gastropods. I also try to present live gastropods on this blog instead of shells only.

This is the snail shell container that is used by shamans of Yanomami South American Indians for keeping hallucinogenic yopo. The container was made from the shell of a land snail from the genus Megalobulimus (family Strophocheilidae).It is on display in the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague. It is a part of the temporary exhibition Indians in 2017-2019 as the previous post.

It was made by Yanomami tribe and it was collected in Brazil in 1989. Yanomami belong to a big group of South American tropical forest cultures. Their religion is shamanism. Various hallucinogenic stuff helps to shamans to communicate with the realms of supernatural powers.

Yopo sniffing powder can be prepared like this. Only shamans should do this because it is causing intoxication. Take seeds of Anadenanthera peregrina tree. Roast them on a clay pot. Crush them into powder. You can add some lime or lime fired from crushed shells. Add some water. Made a paste. Form a small cakes from the paste. Dry the paste on a pot by the fire. When the paste is solid, mill it into a powder.

The whole set looks like this:A snail shell container is used for storing the yopo “cakes”. It is made of the shell, a wood and of burned bee’s wax:Wooden plate or a friction bowl is used to crush the yopo into a very fine powder. Yopo is inhalated from the plate too:A hair brush is used to manipulate with the powder. A hair brush was made from anteater hairs and of burned bee’s wax. A stem is made of bones, of wood and of burned bee’s wax. It is used for sniffing the yopo powder:A woven box is used to store all of those things.

For example there is very similar set depicted from Puerto Ayacucho in Venezuela on the figure 1. Puerto Ayacucho is about 500-600 km far away from the area where where Yanomami tribe exist.

Grossmann (1957) wrote, that Guahibo Indians produce yopo while adding calcium of snail shells to make yopo effective. Nieves-Rivera et al. (1995) wrote, that Taino Indians from Caribbean added crushed shells to the yopo powder. The powder was made from big marine shells probably of true conchs Lobatus gigas, Lobatus costatus and Strombus pugilis. Altschul (1972) specified that Otomac culture from the area of Orinoco obtained the lime “… by firing the shells of large snails which the Indians eat and which they collect on river flood-banks.” That makes sense, because no matter how will you add calcium. Either from lime, from marine shells or from non-marine snail shells.

The Megalobulimus species could be Megalobulimus oblongus (Müller, 1774), but it is hard to be sure.Another view of the container and the shell:References

When I saw this sea slug for the first time, it resembled a floating rag to me. A very small floating rag. It is even waving in the water and it will bent easily in the smallest water current.

I suppose that such appearance gives to a slug an advantage against predators. The brown coloration gives a resemblance to surroundings between the Sargassum brown algae. Its waving is a cryptic behaviour. Those are two ways of a camouflage.

Its constant movement and bending in every unobvious angles is a challenge for taking photos of this sea slug.

Its body length can reach up to 45 mm. My specimen comes from southern Croatia. The whole distribution of this species is large, because it can be found in all tropical and temperate seas. It is the only species from the family Scyllaeidae in Mediterranean Sea.

Let’s taken a closer look in a clearer position. Right side view of the Scyllaea pelagica heading right:Left side view of the Scyllaea pelagica heading left:Its rhinophores are very small and they are hidden in rhinophore sheaths. Its head with mouth and with rhinophore sheaths looks like this from underside:There are two pairs of lobes on its dorsal part of the body. Underside view:There are also visible dendritic gills on the dorsal part and between lobes. Gills are transparent or white in color.There is a genital pore on the right side of the body. It lies in front of the first pair of lobes. There is also anus on the right side of the body. It lies between those lobes.There are also beautiful blue spots on the sides and on the dorsal part of the body.

Where are eyes? I found no eyes in my photos. I am also not sure what exactly are orange like structures inside the body of the slug.

The dress is on display in the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague. It is a part of the temporary exhibition Indians in 2017-2019.

It is a woman’s dress made of cotton. The bodice is decorated with six lines of cowrie shells (family Cypraeidae). They are probably shells of money cowrie Monetaria moneta, that is the most common cowrie.

The dress is from the first half of the 20th century. It comes from the Western Plains Indians. According to the Museum staff is was made by Crows or by Cheyennes. Shells comes from the Indo-Pacific tropical waters and therefore they were imported to the Great Plains.

There is also a belt made of hide and of cloth. There were used porcupine quills in the embroidery of the belt:Such cowries decorations were used also by other Native American tribes, including for example Sioux. Decorating by Crows with elk teeth looks very similar. Elk teeth were probably used in times when cowries were not available yet.

It depicts the Cheyenne baby. There are only four rows of cowrie shells. It seems that there are money cowrie Monetaria moneta shells too, but there are also some ring cowrie Monetaria annulus shells on the right sleeve and on the right part of the dress (on the left part on the photo).

Recluzia lutea (Bennett, 1840), synonym: Recluzia rollandiana Petit de la Saussaye, 1853, is a species of a marine pelagic snail. This means that this snail does not live on the sea bottom, but it lives in the water column. Surprisingly this snail has no swimming fins. This species does not live in the whole water column, but in its the most upper part, closer to the surface level. Therefore it is a part of neuston and such gastropods are called neustonic gastropods. Simply said: Recluzia lutea float on the sea surface. There is also the term ‘plankton’ used for these gastropods: that means it is only able to drift and it cannot swim against the water current. This species is holoplanktonic, which means that it is planktonic for its entire life. It live under a raft-like float made from air bubbles and mucus. It has not yet been observed how the float is constructed by Recluzia.

Pleurodonte isabella (Férussac, 1822) is a neotropical land snail from the family Pleurodontidae. It is also known as “Pleurodonte sp. Barbados” among snail pet keepers. It is variable in color: it can be brown, yellow, orange, blue or purple.

It is endemic to Barbados. It is widespread and abundant there. It inhabits natural environment as well as disturbed habitats. There is wet season and dry season in Barbados. Temperature ranges from 21 to 31 °C. But snails keepers recommend to keep this species in temperature 22-24 °C and in humidity 70-80 %.

It is herbivorous species. It is nuisance occasionally when it eats gingers Zingiber sp. and heliconias Heliconia sp. flowers. It was also reported as a pest on Citrus.

Various right side views:I also tested, if Pleurodonte isabella eat Canna indica ‘Auguste Ferrier’. It is cultivated variety with reddish leaves. This flower occurs in the same areas as Pleurodonte isabella, but it has molluscicidal activity. Various extracts of Canna indica kills freshwater molluscs, because it is nerve agent to them. I found that, that Pleurodonte isabella avoid eating this plant in terrarium. So it seems that they are clever enough to not poison itself.

The width of the shell of this specimen is 18 mm, the height of the shell is 13 mm.

Umbilical view:I did not identify this species by myself. I was able to get some information about ecology of Pleurodonte isabella, but I failed to get information about proper identification of the species. I am glad that an expert in Neotropical malacolofauna helped me in identification/verification.

Pollard G. V. & Alleyne E. H. (1986). Insect pests as constraints to the production of fruits in the Caribbean. In: Pests and Diseases as Constraints in the Production and Marketing of Fruits in the Caribbean. IICA, 31-61. page 43.

These are photos of a shell of a snail from the genus Palaeotachea from the Early or Middle Miocene of the Pfaffenhofen district in Bavaria, Germany. I thank my friend and paleomalacologist Rodrigo B. Salvador who has kindly shared the following photos. Paleomalacologist is a biologist who study prehistoric molluscs.

The genus Palaeotachea belongs to the subfamily Helicinae, within the well known family Helicidae. All species of the genus Palaeotachea lived in the Early or in the Middle Miocene and all of them are extinct now. There are recognized at least 11 species within the genus. It was hypothetized that Palaeotachea species lived in habitats varying from from scrublands to humid woods. In the middle of the Middle Miocene something happened and all Palaeotachea species died out. Instead of them other species from the other genus – Megalotachea sylvestrina also from the family Helicidae – started to thrive.

This certain shell is possibly Palaeotachea silvana. That means it is an interesting species worth to know for everybody who is interested in Tertiary of Europe.

Apical view of Palaeotachea. It is just rotated the previous image. Photo by Rodrigo B. Salvador, CC-BY-4.0.

So what’s interesting in Palaeotachea silvana?

Palaeotachea silvana (Klein, 1853) is an extinct species, that has lived in Middle Miocene.

The specific name silvana is an adjective of the Latin word silva, that means forest or wood. Unfortunately I do not know why the author has chosen this specific name. It was described by physician of the German army (Generalstabsarzt, it is a second highest military rank for physicians in the army) and naturalist Adolf von Klein (1805–1891 or 1892) from Kingdom of Württemberg (now Baden-Württemberg in southwest Germany). The description was published in local journal Jahreshefte des Vereins für vaterländische Naturkunde in Württemberg that could be translated as Yearbook of the Association for Natural History in Württemberg. He described this species under the name Helix silvana in 1853. Later other names were used for this species: Cepaea silvana (Klein, 1853) and Megalotachea silvana (Klein, 1853). These names are considered as synonyms.

Helix crepidostoma Sandberger, 1872 is the type species of the genus Palaeotachea. But the Palaeotachea silvana can be considered as the most important species of the genus. Palaeotachea silvana is an index fossil. Index fossil is a species that is a common and widely distributed in a certain relatively short period. Palaeotachea silvana is an index fossil of Silvana Beds. It is also spelled Silvana-beds, and Silvanaschichten or Silvanakalk in German language. Silvana Beds got its name directly after this species. Palaeotachea silvana is most commonly found fossil in Silvana Beds. Silvana Beds’ range is from 15.8 to 13.8 myr (millions years ago). This means that range of Silvana Beds approximately correspond to older part of the Middle Miocene. Palaeotachea silvana is known at least from the following countries: Hungary, Austria, Baden-Württemberg in Germany and Bavaria in Germany.

The width is some shells of Palaeotachea silvana usually reach about 22 mm, but unusually big shells may have shell width up to 28 mm. There are sometimes visible by naked eye or under the UV light two or three bands on shells of Palaeotachea silvana, but this specimen has no bands. The shell has 4 – 4½ whorls. For other details about shell description see both works Salvador et al. 2015.

The mean annual temperature in the Central Europe in the Middle Miocene was about 19 °C. Yes, it was really hot those days.

There was an exhibition of live invertebrates in Botanical garden of Charles University in Prague in June 2018. The exhibition was named “Big exhibition of invertebrates”. It deserve such name. It focus on invertebrates from the Czech Republic and there were numerous of them.

There were also number of visitors. I liked to see visitor’s faces when they became surprised by the size or appearance of some animals. Children are always fascinated by animals. Also adults were fascinated by insect and other invertebrates which they never seen before. It was common to hear parents saying things like this to children: “These caterpillars are so cool!!! I have to take a photo of you with them!” And so on.

Molluscs are also invertebrates so there were some freshwater bivalves and freshwater gastropods and land gastropods:

There was also an interesting species associated with gastropods. There were the following Succinea putris amber snails crawling on a Petri dish:

Two Succinea putris snails. Each of them has one Leucochloridium paradoxum in the left tentacle.

There is a parasite inside the tentacle of these snails. The parasite is a trematode species with the name Leucochloridium paradoxum. They have a life cycle with the intermediate host like other trematodes. The intermediate host of Leucochloridium paradoxum are Succinea snails. When the snail eat a dropping from an infected bird, the parasite will start to grow in the snail’s body. The parasite extends a part of its body into a tentacle of the snail. Then the tentacle looks like a caterpillar and it is pulsating to attract attention of birds. When a trust bird (family Turdidae) will eat the infected snail, the life cycle is complete.

It was the third year of this exhibition and I highly recommend to visit it next time.

Helicina inaequistriata is a species of a land snail from South America. This species is known from Brazil only. It belong to the family Helicinidae that is distributed in tropical and subtropical countries.

I thank my friend and colleague Rodrigo B. Salvador who has kindly shared the following photos for readers of this blog:

These photos accomplish the 2014 article by Rodrigo B. Salvador and his colleagues published in the Check List journal.

The right snail in the above image is the one already mentioned in the paper as a lot stored in the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil under the catalog number MZSP 115369. Its shell was depicted on figures 3-6. The width of the shell is 9.4 mm. The height of the shell is 6.6 mm.

The following image show umbilical view of the shell of Helicina inaequistriata and ventral view of the snail. It shows its extended foot and its tentacles with the position of eyes.

Helicina inaequistriata. Photo by Salvador et al., CC-BY-4.0.

Such tentacles of a land snail resemble for example Pomatias land snails from Europe, but they are not closely related. While the Helicina from the family Helicinidae belongs to the subclass Neritimorpha, the Pomatias from the family Pomatiidae belongs to the subclass Caenogastropoda. It is a nice example that snails have likely become terrestrial animals more than once during the evolution of gastropods. (At least nine times in fact.)

Tonna galea is a large sea snail, that belongs to the family Tonnidae. It is family of predatory gastropods.

My Tonna galea is from southern Croatia.

Video of crawling Tonna galea on the sand in an aquarium (there is no audio):

Another video of the same Tonna galea (no audio):

The frontal view of Tonna galea usually looks like this:

While this is the view of the same specimen of Tonna galea with extended proboscis:

Proboscis is the darker part coming from its head.

Proboscis is a prehensile tube and there is a mouth at the end of the proboscis. Therefore it is an important part of the body of the sea snail. Proboscis is well innervated (there are nerves inside the wall of proboscis) and there are glands next to the proboscis. I found no exact measurements of the proboscis of such big Tonna galea sea snails in the literature.